


Love is a Chemical Reaction

by mightypocketcow



Category: Black Panther (2018), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Andrew Garfield spiderman, Crossover, F/F, F/M, Lesbian Gwen Stacy, Not Canon Compliant, Not Spider-Man: Far From Home Compliant, Not Spider-Man: Homecoming Compliant, Thanks, but that will be much later, i dont care if i make mistakes in canon, not even tom holland compliant, so dont correct me, sorry tom holland, yes deadpool makes an appearance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:28:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29202882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mightypocketcow/pseuds/mightypocketcow
Summary: For Shuri's own safety, she is whisked away to America to go into hiding.  She meets Peter Parker, and they soon realize just how much they mean to each other.  As the events of the MCU unfold, how will they deal with everything that is thrown their way?
Relationships: Michelle Jones/Gwen Stacy, Nakia (Black Panther)/T'Challa, Peter Parker & Shuri
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	1. Queens

_Shuri, aged 14_

“Queens?! Of every place you could send me to in America, you chose Queens?!”

“It is for your own safety, Shuri.” My mother replies. 

I completely ignore her, for I know this was absolutely my father’s idea. “I cannot believe I do not even get a say as to where I am sent! This is ridiculous, Papa!”

“Calm yourself, Shuri.” He is so irritatingly calm about this that it makes me not want to listen to him. “We have discussed this with the council, and with T’Challa and Okoye, and you will be sent with some of her best Dora Milaje to live for a few years.”

“I do not want to!”

“It does not matter what you want.” Once again, my mother has proven she has a colder heart than freshly mined vibranium. “You will go, and that is a fact. Stop arguing with your father.”

“Papa, please!” I plead, still ignoring her. “I need to be here, for T’Challa and for my research and the Wakandan people and –”

“The American high school you will attend is among the best for sciences and mathematics in the entire Eastern area.” My father told me, and it softened the blow a bit before he spoke again. “Your mother and I will be in contact as often as possible, as well as T’Challa. Some of your equipment will be moved with you to continue your research, as I agree it is vital to the Wakandan people. But you do not need to be here to do it.”

“Yes I do! I need access to the resources here, and the minds that help me!” Please, Father, do not send me away from my lab. I am too young to live away from my home.

“You will have everything you need and everything you ask for whenever you need it. But you will not remain in Wakanda because we have decided it is too dangerous for you right now.” Mother states. 

“I do not need protection! I am capable of protecting myself, and I do not need you or the council to tell me where to go! In fact, I am more than tempted to tell you all where you can go!” I snap at her.

“Do not raise your voice at your mother.” My father sounds angry now, and I know it is time to back off.

“Sorry, Papa. Sorry, Mother.” I bow my head before them until my father touches my shoulder.

“Shuri, I know this will be difficult. But there have been threats against Wakanda that are simply too much for a girl your age to have to deal with. You do not have the ability to fight if the time comes. You are too young and Okoye has stated you are too reckless in your training.”

I start to protest, but he puts his finger up to silence me.

“Please do not argue with me, _Umntwana_ [child]. I will not change my mind.”

* * *

_Peter, aged 15_

“Hey, Parker!” 

I really want to ignore Flash Thompson, but he’s so obnoxiously loud that he makes it really difficult. “What, Flash?” I ask as I slam my locker door closed.

“Did you hear we’re getting a new student today? Heard she’s from Africa. Maybe she’s met your family. You know, the gorillas.”

“That would depend on which country in Africa she’s from. Because if she’s from Kenya, they don’t have natural gorillas, but she might know your family. You know, hyenas.”

I heard a snicker from beside me, and I turn to see my best friend Gwen Stacy smirking at me.

“Oh, nice one Parker. I almost thought it was funny.” Flash said sarcastically.

“Funny, I think the same thing about you regularly.”

Flash rolled his eyes and stalked away, probably to pick on somebody who wasn’t more clever than he is.

“I liked that one, Peter.” Gwen grins. “Hyenas. They fit him perfectly. Conniving, obnoxious, cunning, always plotting to kill a king…”

“Well, in truth, hyenas aren’t all that ‘evil’ like _The Lion King_ depicts. They got a really bad reputation from that depiction, and it’s lead to a rise in people hunting them for sport, among other cruel things. They’re actually –”

“I know that, Peter.” Gwen cuts me off with an eye roll. “I was just making a joke.”

“I just get passionate about animal cruelty.” I reply with a fake pout.

“I know that too, Peter. Which is why I keep telling you that you need to meet my girlfriend M.J., but you keep putting it off.”

“I told you, Gwen, I’ve been busy in the evenings.” I know I’ve been evasive about it, but what am I going to do? I can’t tell her I’ve been working at Oscorp, she’d kill me for keeping it a secret because she desperately wants a job there when we’re old enough. But the Doc said I have to keep it under wraps since I’m not 16 yet.

“Uh-huh… Is Aunt May dragging you to her church stuff again?”

Oh, that might work as a cover. Thanks, Gwen. “Yeah, you got me. Uncle Ben hasn’t been feeling well and she still needs a buddy, you know?”

“Oh no! What’s wrong with Uncle Ben? Is your Aunt okay?”

Crap. Gwen can’t possibly stay away from my house now if she thinks Uncle Ben isn’t well and Aunt May is lonely. They dote on her more than they do on me. “They’re fine, it’s all fine. He’s just been tired.”

Gwen looks concerned as well as suspicious, but she thankfully changes the subject. “I heard the new kid is from somewhere in Central Africa, like Rwanda or something.”

“Really? That would be interesting to hear about.”

My mind starts wandering to all the questions I could ask this new kid about their home country as we walk to homeroom, and I don’t hear anything Gwen is talking about.

At some point I am snapped out of it by Gwen actually snapping her fingers in front of my face. 

“Earth to Peter!” She probably has been trying to ask me something for several minutes. This happens more often than I’m willing to admit.

“Sorry, Gwen.” I reply sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck.

“I asked if you had started on Mr. Brace’s history assignment yet.” 

“Oh, yeah.” I pull my laptop out of my bag and open up the document. “Here, take a look.”

She reads through my draft and hums in thought. “That wasn’t what I thought the assignment was supposed to be.”

“What? That’s exactly what the sheet said.”

“No, I think the sheet said to –”

She’s interrupted by the teacher coming into the classroom and yelling for us to quiet down.

“Alright, you wankers.” I still can’t believe our teacher gets away with calling us that, but nobody really seems to care, so it’s been happening all year. “We have a new kid coming in, and I want you to be nice, okay?”

One could almost hear crickets in the lack of response.

“Right. Like you lot could be nice anyways.” He strides over to the door and swings it open, visibly almost hitting someone in the face. “Get in here.”

The person, who luckily dodged the door quickly, steps into the room cautiously. The new kid, apparently, is a very beautiful girl with beautiful hair.

“Don’t hit my face with that door next time.” She says in a thick accent. “You nearly broke my nose, colonizer.”

And beautiful sass, clearly.

A few kids snicker, and the teacher raises his eyebrows. “Colonizer, eh?”

“I mean, you live on stolen land and your people continue to think they own everything just because they see it. So, yes, colonizer.”

The Indigenous kid who sits behind me, Jason, lets out a whoop of agreement.

The teacher just shrugs his shoulders. “You got me. British as charged.” He lets the girl come in before turning to the class. “Okay, wankers. This is – uh –”

“Shuri. Shuri Ubukumkani.” 

“Shuri Umbu – Umu – Ub –” 

“Just Shuri is fine.” She interrupts.

“Okay, Shuri. There’s a seat there in front of Gwen Stacy. Wave your hand, Gwen – yeah, there.”

Shuri nods as she sees Gwen enthusiastically wave with a smile. “Much thanks, Mr. Karl.”

“You knew my name this whole time and chose to call me colonizer anyways?” He responds with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“You knew this land was stolen when you immigrated here and chose to come anyways.” She retorts, much to the delight of the class, who bursts out in laughter and hoots, especially Jason.

As Mr. Karl tries to get control over the class, I focus my attention on Shuri, who is taking out her own laptop. Much nicer than mine, far more expensive, and not even a brand I recognize. The language isn’t something I can read, and the logo is unfamiliar. Possibly a panther?

“Hi, Shuri, I’m Gwen.” Gwen says happily, extending her hand to the girl in front of her with another smile.

“Nice to meet you.” Shuri replies. Then, to my surprise, she looks directly at me. “Is this your boyfriend?”

Gwen bursts out laughing, and I feel my own face flush. “Oh, God no.” Gwen tells her, still laughing. “I’m a lesbian, and he’s just alone because he actually likes Nickelback.”

“Gwen!” I hiss, as Shuri chuckles.

“Nickelback is not the worst band your continent has produced; I can agree with him on that.” Shuri says.

A beautiful girl who doesn’t hate Nickelback? Oh no. I’m going to fall head over heels, aren’t I?


	2. Nonstop Gushing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The more Peter learns about Shuri, the more he is fascinated by her. Gwen is super oblivious to everything.

Shuri, it seemed, was even more intriguing than Peter initially thought. For starters, she was indeed from central Africa, specifically Uganda, as she had told him and Gwen during lunch that first day. She came to America with some of her aunties to get a different view of life and a good American education, while her parents and her brother stayed back home for work. She didn’t talk very long about her parents, just that they ran some big company that’s been in her family for years, but she talked with immense pride about her older brother T’Challa, who she said was gearing up to take over the business when her father dies.

“Not that it will happen anytime soon,” Shuri made it a point to say as they sat in the cafeteria. “My father is a very healthy man and he works out almost as much as Okoye does.”

“Who is Okoye?” Gwen asked.

Shuri almost flushed, but she hid it well, and neither Gwen nor Peter noticed. “Ah… My father’s personal trainer. I love her dearly, like an auntie. She trains my brother and I sometimes too, but I have only just started. She says I have a lot to learn before I am ready to –”

She froze in her speech, and to Peter it seemed she was trying not to fumble her words.

“Ready to what?” Gwen pressed, and Peter could have smacked her for her obliviousness.

“My father and my brother run marathons.” Shuri said suddenly. “They train for a long time to be able to compete and they win medals very often. Okoye says I am not ready to run with them yet.”

“Oh, that’s so cool!” Gwen smiled. “My girlfriend M.J. says that she wants to run in a marathon someday with me, but I told her I’d rather marathon _Game of Thrones_. You’ve seen that, right Shuri?”

“I have heard of it, but Nakia said it wasn’t appropriate for my age.”

“Who is Nakia? Wait, how old are you anyway?”

“Nakia is my brother’s girlfriend, and my fourteenth birthday was last month.”

“You’re only fourteen?” Gwen asked incredulously. “My sixteenth birthday is beginning of April, about two weeks from now, and Peter’s just turned fifteen because he skipped a grade. Did you skip two grades? How did you end up with us?”

“I took an entrance exam when I transferred here, and they told me I would be in this year of classes. I was never in public formal schooling back home, so I can’t say for certain what really happened.”

“Were you homeschooled?”

“Yes, in a way.” Shuri replied. “I learn a lot of things by doing them myself, to be honest with you. I work in my lab and I –” 

She stopped again, and while Gwen couldn’t really tell what was going on, Peter thought that there might be things that Shuri didn’t want to talk about.

“You have your own lab?” Gwen’s eyes went wide, and Peter kicked her under the table this time. “Ow!” She cried out, completely not subtle, and Peter almost groaned.

“I – ” Shuri looked at the table with a flush on her face. “I work in a lab that does scientific developments for my father’s company, and I just call it ‘my’ lab sometimes, though there are others who work there. It’s not really mine.”

“That’s super cool!” Gwen gushed. “There’s a lab I really want to work in once my birthday passes and I’m sixteen, it’s for a company called Oscorp…”

Peter kind of drowned Gwen out at this point, because it made him a bit anxious whenever she talked about it since he wasn’t sure how he was going to hide it from her that he worked at Oscorp once she got her own job there. The Doc said he had to keep it a secret, though, and he didn’t want to disappoint his own late father’s best friend and partner.

Instead, Peter was thinking about Shuri, as he zoned out staring at her face. Uganda wasn’t really a country known for its scientific developments, so what exactly did her father’s company do? Besides that, there were things she didn’t want to talk about or couldn’t talk about. Was her father involved in something illegal or immoral, and she was ashamed or scared to admit it? 

Eventually, he realized that he had been caught staring as her eyes met his, and he blushed as he looked at his food. 

Gwen, completely oblivious to this exchange, kept talking, but Shuri kept sneaking glances at the boy she felt intrigued by. 

He reminded her of T’Challa when he was younger. Awkward, quiet, and almost like he would stumble over his own two feet at any given moment. Gwen, on the other hand, seemed to be just like Nakia; confident, intelligent, happy, and sure of her own independence from any man in her life. Of course, Nakia wasn’t so independent from men that she was dating exclusively women, but it didn’t make much difference to the Wakandans anyways. As long as there were heirs to every tribe, people were free to love as they chose to love.

If Peter grew up to be just like T’Challa, Shuri figured she wouldn’t mind staying in his life for a while. A friend like T’Challa would be loyal and fun to be around. She already enjoyed his company, and Gwen’s. Maybe they would make America more bearable.

* * *

Peter kept thinking about what the possibilities of Shuri’s life were later into the day, even after they had left their last class, which happened to have been advanced eleventh grade biology. Gwen’s specialty was chemistry, not biology, so she was in the tenth grade biology class, but both Peter and Shuri were in the eleventh grade biology class. He could tell the other nerdy boys were fascinated by this little genius girl from Uganda, and he almost felt kind of jealous, but he knew that he didn’t really deserve to feel jealous.

As they said goodbye at the end of the day, and Peter absent-mindedly headed to Oscorp, he couldn’t stop thinking about Shuri. 

It got to the point where when the Doc asked Peter what he wanted to name their latest little spider, he blurted out Shuri’s name.

Dr. Octavius’ eyebrows raised. “Thinking about somebody in particular right now, Peter?”

Peter’s face flushed. “Uh… Yes, sir, I am, but I won’t let it interfere with my work.”

“Tell me about her.” The Doc teased as he put the newly named Spider-Shuri back into her little glass habitat. “She’s clearly somebody special if you’re thinking about her instead of our spiders.”

“Well – ”

Peter spent thirty minutes rambling about Shuri to the Doc, who listened with amusement as he continued his work. He told him about how her favourite American food is Hawaiian pizza, and that she swore in her native language, Xhosa, during biology class, and it almost sounded like she was calling someone a bastard but she had said it roughly translated to ‘Mother of Bast’, because that’s the goddess they worship in her family, and he had noted it was very fascinating that they followed Egyptian polytheism since that was not often found in countries other than Egypt anymore, but she corrected him and said that it wasn’t quite like that…

The Doc eventually managed to get Peter back on track and doing his work instead of babbling about Shuri, and they continued for hours being in their own zones until finally there was a knock at the door that made them both jump.

“Dr. Octavius, sir, there’s a call for you from May Parker.”

Both Peter and the Doc looked at the clock and swore out loud; it was nearly 10 p.m. and this call was probably going to be loud and angry.

“Peter, would you mind putting Shuri and her friends back while I take this call from your aunt? I know she’s going to chew me out for a while and I don’t want to keep you too long.”

“Sure, Doc.”

Peter could just make out his aunt’s voice through the slightly ajar door into the other room, and she definitely sounded angry.

He rolled his eyes with a groan, and knew that not only would his dinner be cold but his aunt would be chewing him out when he got home, too, for staying at work so long on a school night.

He was so distracted thinking about not only his aunt but about Shuri again that he accidentally picked up one of the spiders a bit wonky. The spider, who was their oldest girl and named Arachne, was startled, and she bit him hard on the finger. He nearly dropped her in surprise, but managed to steady himself and put her back where she belonged.

He didn’t think much of the fact that she had bit him, as he left for home, and he didn’t tell the Doc or anybody else. He disinfected it after his half-hour lecture from Aunt May, and went to sleep after a reheated dinner and a conversation about responsibilities with his Uncle Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay safe my friends!

**Author's Note:**

> I promise, I'm still working on my other fics. My partner came up with this idea and I loved it so we're running with it.  
> Stay safe folks!


End file.
